“We want to recreate Melbourne’s world class coffee culture throughout Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia”
Black Bag Roasters has announced bold plans to take Melbourne’s award-winning coffee to Southeast Asia.
Speaking at the launch of the company’s $11 million production facility at Truganina, 22-kilometres west of Melbourne’s CBD, Chief Operating Officer Ben Romeril said Southeast Asia’s emergence as a coffee loving region had allowed the company to set some high sales goals for the next two years.
The Black Bag Roasters team has just returned from the region and believes Black Bag Roasters has some huge opportunities in countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.
“The coffee we produce using our state-of-the-art Brambati roaster, is world class,’’ Mr Romeril said.
“Southeast Asia is in the midst of a love affair with coffee and our ability to post blend coffee to perfectly match the palettes of our customers gives us a unique opportunity in this market.’’
According to Statista, coffee consumption in the region is expected to grow at almost 8.5 percent until 2025, and up to 85 percent of all coffee is consumed out-of-home at restaurants, bars and cafes so the market is growing rapidly.
“Melbourne produces some of the best coffee in the world. The World Barista champion is from Melbourne. We have a great opportunity to export our coffee and help recreate Melbourne’s world class coffee scene throughout the world – starting with Southeast Asia.’’
The 600-kilogram Italian made and designed Brambati roaster installed at the Truganina plant is fitted with a catalytic converter that significantly reduces gases generated during the roasting process. At full production, it can produce up to 300 tonnes of coffee each week.
The new facility at Truganina gives Black Bag Roasters the opportunity to produce coffee 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week and it also offers easy access to Melbourne’s port, which means exporting coffee to Southeast Asia is now easier than ever.
Mr Romeril said Black Bag Roasters had worked hard to find ways to efficiently deliver high-quality, environmentally, and socially responsible products.
“We’re conscious of saying that we produce an agricultural product. We want to continue to ensure that what we produce is basically an organic product, we’re treating it as such and we’re having a positive impact, not a negative impact on the environment in terms of emissions, in terms of waste, in terms of water use.
“When you go to a coffee farm, you’re really struck by the beauty of where coffee is grown. It’s grown in temperate mountainous climates. They are beautiful, important, ecological areas. So, as a coffee roaster, you can’t help but feel responsible to make sure that you’re looking after this product. And that you’re doing everything you can to deliver this product to people in a cup with the least environmental impact that you can.
“We are proudly a carbon-neutral organisation, accredited through Climate Active. And due to the size of the roaster, the efficient catalytic converter, and the Eco Afterburner – which will not only reduce our average emissions – our gas usage per kilo is also significantly reduced. We’re very ambitious around what we will reduce in terms of the number of bags we are using. We’ve already reduced the size of coffee bags. We reduced the format size of our bags by 7 percent. That would normally go to a landfill. Our new plant produces less gas and less packaging. We also have some ambitious plans around green energy aided with the installation of solar panels.’’